Im still being trained, Malden said, which was true enough.
The knight shook his head, though. If you dont know Chillbrand, you have no right to bear Acidtongue. I must assume you stole it from Bikkeror looted it from his dead body. Put the sword back in its sheath, now, and lay it gently on the ground. Thats a good boy.
Maldens lips pulled back from his teeth and he roared as he ran at the knight. He brought Acidtongue up high over his shouldervitriol pattered and burned holes through his cloakand then swung it down hard.
The knight laughed, and easily batted Acidtongue away with Chillbrand.
Its not a quarterstaff, son, the knight said, taking two steps to Maldens right, forcing Malden to whirl around to face him again. Dont swing it around like a stick. Thats a waste of its strength. Cut with it. Like youd chop the head off a fish.
Youd teach me to fight, even as Im trying to kill you? Malden asked.
Judging by your skill itll take you quite a while to do that, the knight responded. I have to find some way to pass the time.
Malden seethed with rage. He tried a stroke hed seen Croy make a dozen timesfeint quickly to the left, then shift all your weight to your right side and on the follow-through, bring the blade around to
Iron clanged on iron. Chillbrand slid down Acidtongues blade and its point was suddenly at Maldens throat, while Acidtongue was thrust harmlessly to one side.
A swordsman, the knight told Malden, trains every day of his life. He sustains himself on wholesome food, to build up his strength. Youre puny, boy. Youve gone to bed hungry one too many times. Youre quick on your feet, Ill give you that, but the muscles in your arm are soft as cheese. I can feel it.
Will you insult me to death? Stop toying with me!
When two knights meet, swords in hand, they call it a conversation, because of the way the steel sounds its joy, back and forth. But youd know that, too, if
Without warning, Malden brought Acidtongue around with his weight behind it, intending to run it straight through the knights body. Acidtongue flickered in the air it moved so quickly. Yet the knight was as ready for the blow as if hed read Maldens mind. Chillbrand came down from overhead and turned Acidtongue to the side like earth off the blade of a plow.
Cut me down or let me pass! Malden shrieked.
If you insist, the knight said.
Yet he would not even grant Malden the mercy of a quick death. Instead he just lunged forward and slapped Malden across the forehead with the flat of his blade.
Ice crystals grew and burst inside Maldens brain, exploding his thoughts and freezing his senses. He felt every shred of warmth sucked from his body, drawn into the freezing sword. He started to shake and his teeth clacked together like the wooden clappers of the lepers hed seen. His body convulsed with the cold and suddenly he could not control his fingers, and Acidtongue fell from his hand to bounce off the cobblestones.
Desperately Malden tried to wrap his arms around himself, to stamp his feetanything to get warm. His body had rebelled against him, and he could not stop shaking.
It was the work of a moment for the kingsmen behind him to grab him up, and bind him, and haul him away. He could offer no resistance at all.
CHAPTER EIGHT
When Malden burst out of the inn, Cythera leapt to her feet fully intending to follow him. People pressed in on every side though and she just could not match the thiefs speed or nimbleness. Still she tried to push her way through the crowduntil Croy grabbed her arm and dragged her back.
If they have a warrant for his arrest, Croy said, we must
Hes our friend, Cythera said, staring daggers at the knight errant. Im going after him!
If you must, then at least lets do it the right way. Well speak to the proper authorities, and find out why they want him and how he can be freed. Just let me settle up our bill here, and
She stared at him with wild eyes. Ill go alone. You keep an eye on Balint. She twisted her arm out of his grip and ducked under the elbow of the taverner, who had come to see what all the fuss was about. The people in the inn drew back when they saw the look in her face.
She would not lose Malden. Not now, when shed just realized how she felt about him. That fate should take him away from her now was unacceptable.
Outside of the inn she sought wildly through the crowded streets, having no idea where she should look for Malden first. She knew he would likely have taken to the rooftops but she wasnt as nimble and couldnt follow him that way. When she heard the hue and cry go up, though, she knew to head in the direction of the shoutingand raced around a corner just in time to see Malden struck down. She called out his name in horror but couldnt move from the spot, paralyzed in terror. She thought for certain he was dead, his head caved in by the blow, but instead he merely collapsed to the street, quaking like a man in the grip of a terrible seizure.
She wanted to run forward, to grab him up and take him away, to rescue him. But the square was full of kingsmen and the armored knight stood watchful and ready. There was no way she could help Malden now, not directly. There must be something she could do, though, something to
Daughter. You have been gone too long.
Cytheras jaw dropped. Mother?
Creeping dread made every muscle in her back ripple and tense. Slowly she turned around, expecting to see Coruth the witch standing in the alley behind her.
Instead there was a boy there, a little peasant boy with a dirty face. And several hundred birds.
Rooks, starlings, pigeons and doves all stood on the cobbles, or perched on the timbers of the houses on either side. More of them came down to land around the boy as Cythera watched. Some fluttered down to land on his shoulders, others to perch atop his head. The birds were all staring at her.
The boy, in way of contrast, looked at nothing. His eyes were unfocused and looked like they might roll up into their sockets. His arms hung loose at his sides and the muscles of his face were all slack, so that he slurred his words as he spoke to her again.
You are required in Ness. You must come home immediately.
Cythera knew what was happening. That didnt make it any less unsettling. Her mother had set her spirit loose upon the ether, let it drift with the movements of birds, as was her wont. It allowed her to see things hidden from human eyes and to keep a watch on the entire kingdom of Skrae at once. Yet birds could not convey proper messagestheir beaks and tongues were ill-formed for human speech. So Coruth must have overridden the boys consciousness with her own. It was a cruel thing to do and Cythera knew Coruth would only have turned to such magic if she had no other choice.
Maldens in trouble, mother. You and I both owe him a great debtI cant go anywhere until hes safe. I just watched him get struck by an Ancient Blade.
Chillbrand, the boy said. He did not nod. Coruth was controlling only enough of his functions to speak with. That was the difference between witchcraft and sorcery, sometimes. A sorcerer would have taken the boy over completelyand left him mindless and half-dead when the sorcerer was done with him. One of the seven. Strange. I can see them all now, all seven of the swords. They are coming together, as if drawn by a magnet.
The swords are coming to Helstrow? Cythera asked, intrigued despite herself.
For a brief while. Hmm. This could be trouble. The future is not entirely clear right now. What is clear is that you must return to Ness. We must speak, you and I. Great events are unfolding. Some we care about will be brought low, while others are lifted to the heights. What was solid and eternal will become mutable. Malden did you say Malden was in trouble? But thats impossible. He hashe will
The boys lips pressed tightly together, and one of his hands twitched. Coruth was losing control of him.
Mother? Mother, what are you talking about? Cythera demanded. Coruth could see the underpinnings of reality, she could even glimpse the future, but often what she saw was so cryptic even she could make no sense of it. Cythera understood maybe one part in ten of what Coruth told her of those visions. Mother, please. I need to know moreif this will effect Malden, or Croy, I need to know!
But Coruth had released the boy. His eyes slowly focused and his face regained something like normal muscle tone. Cythera knelt down to put her hands on his shoulders and help him return to full control of his body by stroking his forehead and rubbing his back. Mistress, he said, and blinked his eyes rapidly. Mistress, I beg your pardonI musta come runnin down here and bumped you, and scattered me wits for a moment. IIwhere am I? I was sposed to do somethin, but I cant rightly recall what. I cant remember much, tell the truth. My head aches somethin awful.
You were supposed to give me a message. You did just fine. Cythera took a farthing from her purse and pressed it into his hand. You do look like youve had a shock. Best run home now and lie down.
The boy took the coin and headed off, scattering the birds that bobbed and scampered around the alley. Cythera hoped he would do as shed saidthe spell hed been under would leave him drained and scattered for days, and she would hate to find out hed come to some mischief just for helping Coruth.
Slowly she rose to her feet again. She would return to the inn and find Croy. The knight-errant was Maldens only hope, now. Before she headed back, though, she waited until one of the birds was turned away from her. Then she darted forward and grabbed it with both hands. It was a pigeon with iridescent wings and it was not so frightened as it should have been. That meant some piece of Coruths mind was still inside its head. Mother, she whispered to the bird, you could have been more helpful. I got your message but all youve achieved is to scare me a bit. If you have any idea what Im supposed to do now, Id love to hear it.
The bird struggled in her hands, and she released it. Without even looking at her it took to the air and flew away.
CHAPTER NINE
They dragged Malden through the gate to the inner bailey, then up a hill to the keep. No one spoke to him, and he was still too blasted with cold to ask any questions. When they arrived inside the thick stone walls of the keep he expected to be thrown into an oubliette and forgotten. He had, after all, threatened a knight of the king. Instead, however, he was taken into a spacious feasting hall where an iron collar was locked around his throat and then chained to a staple in one wall. The hall was already full of men, mostly young, mostly with the scrawny, shifty-eyed look of dire poverty. Malden thought he recognized a few of the faceshe had seen them being rounded up in the square. These, it seemed, were his people. Thieves and beggars, the seedy underbelly of Helstrovian society. Not that this knowledge was likely to help himthey didnt know him from the Emperor of the South. Nor was he in any shape to introduce himself. He could barely keep his teeth from breaking, they chattered so much.
For a great while, Malden curled himself about his stomach and just shivered. He felt like all of winters chill had gathered in his bones. He felt his heart racing, booming in his chest. His fingers turned bright red as if they had been frostbitten. A fire burned in a hearth at one side of the hall, and he longed and dreamed of going to it, of shoving his hands directly into the flames, simply for the warmth he would feel before his flesh singed and burnt. Luckily the chain around his neck kept him from doing so.
In time, the supernatural chill withdrew from his bones. He doubted he would ever truly feel warm again, but his teeth stopped knocking together so much.
Blowing warm breath on his fingers, he struggled to sit up and look around. Nothing had changed over the last hour, save that more men had been brought into the hall. Very few of them were talking to each other. Mostly they sat in dull silence and stared at things that werent there. They came and chained up a man next to Malden, a middle-aged starveling whose eyes were quite mad. He stared at Malden without speaking until Malden turned to the man on his other side.
You, Malden said, to the surly fellow. He needed information and no other source provided itself. What did they get you for, then?
Whats it to ye?
Im a scholar of justice, Malden told him.
That elicited a brief laugh, though little humor. They never said why. Just grabbed me up outta me bed. Mind, I suppose I deserve to be here moren some.
Youre a thief, then? Malden asked. The other bridled so he held up his hands for peace. Im in the trade myself, he explained, and will say as much to any man who asks.
Alright, then. Call me a thief, if ye like.
Malden nodded eagerly. Then he ran his hands across the rushes on the floor. As expected there was a thick layer of dust underneath. He cleared some rushes away, then drew in the dust with his finger, sketching a heart transfixed by a key.
The other thief stared down at the image. Malden knew right away that the man recognized the symbolhe knew it for the mark of Cutbill, the master of the thieves guild in Ness. He had worried that the symbol might not be known in Helstrow.
The other thief slid one foot through the drawing, obliterating it before anyone else could see. Youre his man? he asked.
Malden nodded.
We got our own boss here, though I shant say his name out loud, not in this place. You can have what they call me, though, which is Velmont.
Malden.
The two of them clasped hands, but only for a moment.
The thief made a point of looking away as he spoke out of the side of his mouth. Now maybe my boss has heard o your boss. Maybe theys even friends. Well, men of business will come together, eh, and find ways to help each other out, from time to time. Still, I dont know what youre after, showing me that.
Malden frowned. Just a bit of knowledge, really. The watch herethe kingsmenare rounding up every scofflaw in town, it seems. Ive never seen such a complete sweep before. Unless you tell me this is a common occurrence in Helstrow
It aint.
then I can only wonder why theyre being so thorough. There must be a hundred men in this room. And why here? This looks like a banquet hall, not a dungeon. The only reason to put us here is if the gaol is already full. And that means there must be plenty more of us stashed in other places, too. Maybe hundreds of men. Surely the king doesnt intend to hang us all. He wouldnt need to slaughter so many just to improve public morale.
Velmont scratched himself. It started just a few days ago. Folks thatd been in the game far longern mefolks that shoulda been untouchable, likegot scooped up in the middle o the night. Then they started raiding the gambling houses and the brothels at dawn. He shrugged. No one tells us anything, o course. Were just peasants, what do we need tknow? But twas at the same time, that all the honest men in town got taken outside the wall to learn how to shoot a bow. The thief shook his head. You just in town today? Your accent says youre from Ness, is that right?